US producer prices rose by a record 9.7% in the year to December, according to data from the Labor Department on Thursday, that kept up with the red-hot inflation seen across most goods and services in an economy recovering from the coronavirus pandemic
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th January, 2022) US producer prices rose by a record 9.7% in the year to December, according to data from the Labor Department on Thursday, that kept up with the red-hot inflation seen across most goods and services in an economy recovering from the coronavirus pandemic.
"Final demand prices moved up 9.7 percent in 2021, the largest calendar-year increase since data were first calculated in 2010," the department said in a news release, referring to the Producer Price Index, which is a measure of prices that wholesalers pay for goods and services.
For December itself, producer prices rose by 0.2%, contracting from the sharper 0.8% surge in November.
But it was the annual number that caught the eyes of economists polled by US media who almost nailed the figure reported by the Labor Department with an average forecast of a 9.8% growth.
"The thing to focus on is probably the slowing pace of monthly rises, though with the way oil and metals have rallied this week, I don't know if that will last," economist Adam Button said in a post on ForexLive, referring to the 10% surge in crude prices and 2% rise in copper prices since the year began.
Trillions of Dollars of Federal spending on pandemic relief, higher wages and supply chain disruptions have combined to create price surges in almost everything from cooking oil to houses since the outbreak of the COVID-19 crisis.
The Labor Department reported on Wednesday that US consumer prices rose 7% in the year to December, marking the fastest inflationary growth in 40 years.
